Deer shot at Craig city street intersection

Division of Wildlife offers reward for information relating to incident

Craig  Before light Wednesday morning, an unidentified person fatally shot a mule deer buck within the Craig city limits at the Sixth Street and Ledford intersection, Colorado Division of Wildlife officials said.

Residents in the vicinity reported hearing gunshots before morning, said Mike Fwaro, DOW district wildlife manager.

Anyone who provides information relating to the incident is eligible for a reward, which starts at $500 and can be more, Fwaro said. Calls can be anonymous and should be made to Operation Game Thief at 877-265-6648 or Craig Regional Dispatch at 824-6501.

The incident did not appear to be related to any issue involving the animal and a homeowner, as it was shot in the middle of the intersection, Fwaro said.

Shootings in town are not common, he said.

"Every once in a while, somebody gets angry about the deer in their yard, but they can call us and we'll take of that," Fwaro said. "Generally, everybody in town here loves the deer, likes them being in the area. This is an isolated incident."

The scene had no signs that the shooter made an attempt to move the animal or harvest any meat, Fwaro said.

"It looks like somebody just went out and wanted to shoot something," he said.

Collin Smith can be reached at 875-1794 or cesmith@craigdailypress.com

Comments

I've about had it with the deer in my yard. Even though my yard is fenced, they hop right over it. I can't plant a garden they ruin it. They get droppings all over that I step in when I mow my lawn. I'm afarid one of these days a buck will attack my kid in my fenced back yard, and when that happens I'm going to sue the city for not doing anything about this problem. I'm glad somebody popped one. That's one less in my yard. Hopefully that same individual will go on a nut and kill all of them. Sorry, not everyone in town likes the pretty deer. All my neighbors feel the same way. This summer I'm going to try the repellant sold at MJK so I can plant a garden.

Well, well, well, I bet it was a dispute between a land owner and the deer in question. Smart old geezers here in Craig wait until the deer has left the yard and are in the middle of the street before they pop them. We all know if one gets popped in your yard you are the instant suspect!

I just have to pitch in my 2 cents worth on this one. Native is right that shooting anything in town is 1. illegal and 2. dangerously stupid because not everyone would take the trouble to make sure they weren't going to hit something they don't intend.

I have my share of critters chomping on my shrubbery, and while I don't get too wound up about it, I have found a couple things that seem to help keep them from doing much damage.

One really effective thing I've used in the past that seems to be simple and inexpensive is to cover shrubs with the plastic netting they sell to keep birds of berries. All you have to do is toss it over the shrub. For some reason, when the deer feel that against their noses they tend to leave whatever is under it alone. With some wooden stakes and a staple gun you can do this around trees too, and it doesn't show like chicken wire does.

Another thing you can do is to get chicken feathers (I got them from a feed store) and spread them around the edges of flowerbeds. They work until the chicken scent wears off so you have to keep putting them out periodically.

But the thing I do that helps the most is to plant things they don't seem to like to eat. Some of the specific plants I have had real good luck with are white daisies, cosmos, coneflowers and blanket flowers. They seem to leave those alone unless they're starving.

It seems to me, and I may be wrong cause I'm not in the wildlife business, but with the huge herds that have developed over the past twenty odd years that the DOW could do a little more in the way of harvesting by putting out more licenses. If more hunters took more deer at least for a few seasons, it would help ease the pressure on them all to find enough food (which might get them to migrate out of town more) and would help keep their numbers more managable. At least it wouldn't be a waste of the deer, since hunters usually do eat what they shoot, and it would bring in extra revenue as a bonus.